The collection of billing records from communications networks is presently carried out by switches. Individual switches within a telecommunications network, such as a PSTN network, generate billing information that is in a format which is native to the switch. In essence, the switch is used to collect call records by monitoring all the dialog traffic that occurs through the switch. The billing information is then collected from all the switches within the network. However, this billing information is in a non-industry standard format which makes the collection of call billing information from multiple switches difficult and inefficient.
Another problem results from the need to provide expensive switch features, such as switch ports, for Internet service provider (ISP) usage. Typically, Internet service providers (ISPs) do not need expensive switch features. Likewise, Internet service providers (ISPs) often lease co-located modems from local exchange carriers (LECs), either incumbent LECs or competitive LECs. As a result, ISPs use more floor space and spend more money on switching features and co-located modems. Therefore, there was a need to provide for new switches, many of which now present billing data in a non-industry standard format. As a result, there is a further enhanced problem in that the collection of billing information from various switches is now complicated because of such non-industry standard format.
Therefore, there exists a need for improved techniques for collecting call billing information from a telecommunications network.